Construction element

ABSTRACT

A load-supporting construction element, for spanning a pair of spaced-apart supports and adapted to form a wall, floor, deck or roofing structure or a support for a wall, floor, deck or roofing surface which consists of a sheet-metal plate of generally rectangular-plan configuration and a plurality of troughs and crests in alternating relationship and of trapezoidal crosssection. The apices of the troughs and/or crests are provided with integral (unitary) ridges concave in the direction in which the corrugation bulges and of trapezoidal or arcuate crosssection. The flanks of the trapezoidal corrugations are stepped.

United States Patent [191 Silberkuhl et al.

[11] 3,760,549 451 Sept. 25, 1973 CONSTRUCTION ELEMENT [75] Inventors:Wilhelm Johannes Silberkuhl; Horst Manthey, both of Essen, Germany [73]Assignee: Wilhelm Johannes Silberkuhl, Essen,

Germany [22] Filed: Nov. 19, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 200,347

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Nov. 21, 1970 Germany P 20 57372.2

[52] US. Cl. 52/630, 52/537 [51] Int. Cl E04d 3/361, E04d 13/04 [58]Field of Search 52/537, 588, 630, 52/336, 671, 672, 674, 450

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 475,854 5/1892 Fugman 52/537X 3,520,100 7/1970 Webb 52/630 X 3,308,596 3/1967 Cooper et al. 52/630FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 703,638 2/1965 Canada ..52/630 50,0089/1921 Sweden ..52/630 Primary Examiner-Alfred C. Perham Att0rneyl(arlF. Ross 57] ABSTRACT A load-supporting construction element, forspanning a pair of spaced-apart supports and adapted to form a wall,floor, deck or roofing structure or a support for a wall, floor, deck orroofing surface which consists of a sheet-metal plate of generallyrectangular-plan configuration and a plurality of troughs and crests inalternating relationship and of trapezoidal cross-section. The apices ofthe troughs and/or crests are provided with integral (unitary) ridgesconcave in the direction in which the corrugation bulges and oftrapezoidal or arcuate cross-section. The flanks of the trapezoidalcorrugations are stepped.

7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures CONSTRUCTION ELEMENT FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to a construction element and, moreparticularly, to a load-supporting, support-spanning, structural memberof rectangular-plan configuration and adapted to be used as wall, floor,deck or roof member and/or as a sheathing for any structure and/or as apartition member, alone or in combination with a planar or othersupported surface.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the construction field, considerableeffort has been made to design lightweight, low-cost, high-strength flatspace-covering members which can be used without, or even in place of,supporting means, girders, studs, troughs, columns and the like. Forexample, prior to the advent of sheet-metal or synthetic-resinstructural elements or sheets of the character described, constructiongenerally made use a load-supporting or loadtransmitting members of awell-defined profile as beams, girders and the like, which were spannedby the covering members, e.g. flooring built up from wood, slabs, castin situ or prefabricated of concrete, or boads, plates or sheets of avariety of materials adapted to rest upon the supporting members anddesigned to span large areas. In a refinement of these constructiontechniques, structural elements having a generally flat configurationand intended to span large areas were integrally or unitarily provided.with stiffening formations intended to to increase the load-supportingcapacity of the body and to replace girders, beams and separate supportswhich otherwise were required to extend along the flat web of thestructural element. Typical of systems of the latter type were concreteslabs cast with trapezoidal ribs to form a monolithic body in which theribs served as beams and the web'between the ribs as the coveringportion of the structural element.

While the aforedescribed systems were found to be convenient andsatisfactory for many purposes, they were unduly complex, expensive andmassive. Attention has turned, for many construction purposes, tolightweight material of sheet metal and synthetic resin in an effort tofind structural elements which are more convenient to handle, arelightweight and are of high stiffness and resistance to deformation. Forexample, corrugated sheet metal and synthetic-resin sheets have beenprovided heretofore, the corrugations being of arcuate or trapezoidalcross-section and merging smoothly from one creast to the adjacenttrough. These systems have only limited stiffness and can be used tospan relatively small distances. They seldom can be employed as asubstitute for horizontal load-carrying supports and frequently must beused in conjunction with them. Attempts to use sheet-metal andsynthetic-resin sheets having spaced-apart ridges unitarily deformedfrom the plane of the sheet and of rectangular crosssection, have alsoproved to be unsuccessful because the structural element had onlylimited antibuckling strength or load-supporting capability. It shouldbe noted that another problem involved with existing corrugatedmaterials or materials provided with profilestiffening members has beenthe inability to stack the structural elements efficiently andconveniently. Finally, it should be pointed out that corrugated sheetsof metal or synthetic resin, in which each corrugation is of arcuatecross-section, are relatively expensive to produce.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION disadvantages and to simplify and improve theconstruction of load-supporting members.

Another object of the invention is to provide a generally flat orsheet-like structural element which may be used as a load-supportingmember without girders, beams or the like, i.e. which provides thecompression and tension flanges upon loading in an integral or unitarymanner.

It is another object of the invention to provide an improvedconstruction element adapted to span large areas, and suitable for useas a wall-forming, roofforming, deck-forming, or roof, wall ordecksupporting member in substantially any phase of buildingconstruction including sheathing, partitioning and facing a structure.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a generally flat,load-supporting construction element with increased load-bearingcapacity without increases in thickness of the material and withsatisfactory stacking ability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION These objects and other which will becomeapparent hereinafter are attained in accordance with the presentinvention, in a generally flat structural element having arectangular-plan configuration and composed of sheet metal or asynthetic resin, the structural element being of constant wall thicknessthroughout and unitar ily formed with corrugations opening alternatelyon opposite sides of the structural member and of generally trapezoidalconfiguration. The stiffening ribs of generally trapezoidalcross-section, according to the present invention, comprise flanks orside walls which converge alternately upwardly and downwardly to a crestor trough which, according to the present invention, is provided with alongitudinally extending unitarily formed profile rib which is concavein the direction in which the corrugation bulges and which has atransversewidth equal to at least a substantial fraction of the widthof' the flattened crest or trough in which it is formed. The structuralelement which can be used as a roofing plate, a wall plate, a sheathplate or the like, or for any of the other purposes previouslydescribed, also is provided along the flanks of the trapezoidalcross-section with longitudinally extending steps such that a transitionis formed between a slender trapezoid in the region of the small side ofthe trapezoidal corrugation and an enlarged trapezoid close to the broadbase thereof. This combination of a step in each flank and a rib orchannel in each crest or trough has been found to impart substantiallygreater stiffness and antibuckling resistance to the constructionelement than has been attainable with existing corrugated plates andfurthermore permits the plate to take up shear stresses and bendingmoments in the transverse direction with greater effectiveness.

According to an important feature of the invention, the width of theflattened crest or trough is substantially equal to the height of theflanks or walls of the corrugation and the altitude thereof.

The alternating corrugations of the plate constitute the compression andtension flanges of the structural element when the latter is aload-supporting body in accordance with the present invention and thecrest ribs and flank steps have been found to enable the altitude of thecorrugations to be relatively high. As a consequence, the compressionand tension flanges can effectively be removed from a median planethrough the plate to a much greater extent than has been possibleheretofore. The stacking properties of the plate are thereby improved asis the load-carrying capability for a given sheet thickness.

According to another feature of the invention, the crest rib is formedof arcuate cross-section along the upper portions of the plate and oftrapezoidal crosssection along the downwardly facing portion of theplate, in both cases the crest rib being dimensioned to correspond to atleast 90 of circular arc. The side walls preferably include angles ofabout 1 with horizontal flanges of the plate while the angle of the stepis advantageously about 145.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The above and other objects, features andadvantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from thefollowing description, reference being made to the accompanying drawingin which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a structural element according to thepresent invention; and

FIG. 2 is a detailed view of a portion thereof in end elevationcorresponding to the region viewed along line 11-11ofFlG. 1.

SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION The generally fiat structural element illustratedin the drawing is preferably round from sheet metal or extruded from asynthetic resin using a round extruder and in most cases will becomposed of a sheet metal such as aluminum or steel which may be coatedwith anticorrosion layers or the like. In general the plate is ofrectangular plan-configuration and is formed with corrugations 1, 2, 3,extending in the longitudinal direction and alternately open upwardlyand downwardly. Each corrugation is defined between a pair of flanks orside walls which converge upwardly to a flat tened crest 2 or downwardlyto a flattened trough 3. The plate is generally employed as a roof, wallor sheath member.

As can be seen from FIG. 2, the side walls or flanks 1 are provided withlongitudinally extending steps 4 inclined in an angle of substantially145 to the wall or flank which, in turn, includes an angle of 115 to thehorizontal portions 2 and 3 extending therefrom. The steps 4 are locatedapproximately midway of the height of each wall or flank 1. The crests 2of the upwardly bulging corrugations are formed with reinforcing ribs 5of arcuate cross-section, the ribs 5 defining a concavity open in thedirection in which its corrugation bulges. Correspondingly, ribs 6 areformed in the trough floor 3 and open in the direction in which theircorrugations bulge, i.e. downwardly. Preferably the formations 5 and 6extend in cross-section over substantially a quadrant of a circle, i.e.about 90, as shown at e in FIG. 2. The altitude G of rib 6 isapproximately 125 mm in the preferred case and has abroad base Esubstantially twice as wide as its narrow base L. E may be about 3 G.The thickness of the plate is preferably about 1 mm. Structural elementsof this type have been found to be satisfactory for spanning largedistances and carrying considerable loads.

According to an important feature of this invention, the transversewidth A or D of the flattened crest 2 or trough 3 of the respectivecorrugation is approximately equal to the altitude H thereof. The widthof the channel formed by the rib 5 or 6 is represented at B or E,respectively, and A/2 s B E s A/4 and preferably B E z A/3.

It has also been found to be desirable to dimension the corrugation suchthat the broad base C 2A, while D 2A and B E. The altitude F z G of theformations 5 and 6 may be defined by the relationship 13/4 PS B/2 sothat in the preferred state F z 8/3. The step ofeach flank 1 may have awidth 1 z I-1/4 or K/2 wherein J and K are respectively with widths ofthe portions of the side walls flanking the step 4. The angle a betweenthe flank K and the floor 3 ofa trough is about 1 15 as previouslydescribed while the angle B between the portions of the side wall 1 andthe step 4 formed therein may be 145. Similarly, the angle y between theside wall and crest 2 is approximately 1 15 while the angle 8 of theflank of the rib 6 is about We claim:

1. A construction element which comprises a generally planar plate ofrectangular plan configuration unitarily formed with alternatelyupwardly and downwardly bulging corrugation of generally trapezoidalcross-section, said corrugations being formed with generally flat flanksconverging to flattened crests and troughs respectively, said flanksbeing formed with lon gitudinally extending steps and said crests andtroughs being formed unitarily with longitudinally extending ribprofiles deformed therein and concave in the direction in which therespective corrugation bulges, said corrugations having altitudesapproximately equal to the transverse widths of said flattened troughsand crests, said steps being formed substantially midway along saidflanks, and said flanks including angles of about 115 with saidflattened troughs and crestd and said steps include angles ofsubstantially with said flanks.

2. The element defined in claim 1 wherein said rib profiles are providedsubstantially in the middle of the respective flattened trough andcrest.

3. The element defined in claim 1 wherein said rib profiles extendapproximately over a quadrant of a circle in cross-section.

4. The element defined in claim 3 wherein the rib profiles on theupwardly bulging corrugations are of arcuate cross-section and the ribprofiles on the downwardly bulging corrugations are of trapezoidalcrosssection.

5. The element defined in claim 4 wherein said flattened crests andtroughs have transverse widths A and D respectively, said corrugationshave altitudes H, said rib profiles have widths B and E for the arcuateand trapezoidal cross-sections respectively, and respective altitudes Fand G and said corrugations have broad bases of widths C, the values A,B, C, D, E, F and G being related as follows: A/2 s B x E s A/4, C k 2A2D, and 13/2 x E/2.

6. The element defined in claim 5 wherein F G 8/3 E/3.

7. The element defined in claim 6 wherein B A/3.

1. A construction element which comprises a generally planar plate ofrectangular plan configuration unitarily formed with alternatelyupwardly and downwardly bulging corrugation of generally trapezoidalcross-section, said corrugations being formed with generally flat flanksconverging to flattened crests and troughs respectively, said flanksbeing formed with longitudinally extending steps and said crests andtroughs being formed unitarily with longitudinally extending ribprofiles deformed therein and concave in the direction in which therespective corrugation bulges, said corrugations having altitudesapproximately equal to the transverse widths of said flattened troughsand crests, said steps being formed substantially midway along saidflanks, and said flanks including angles of about 115* with saidflattened troughs and crestd and said steps include angles ofsubstantially 145* with said flanks.
 2. The element defined in claim 1wherein said rib profiles are provided substantially in the middle ofthe respective flattened trough and crest.
 3. The element defined inclaim 1 wherein said rib profiles extend approximately over a quadrantof a circle in cross-section.
 4. The element defined in claim 3 whereinthe rib profiles on the upwardly bulging corrugations are of arcuatecross-section and the rib profiles on the downwardly bulgingcorrugations are of trapezoidal cross-section.
 5. The element defined inclaim 4 wherein said flattened crests and troughs have transverse widthsA and D respectively, said corrugations have altitudes H, said ribprofiles have widths B and E for the arcuate and trapezoidalcross-sections respectively, and respective altitudes F and G and saidcorrugations have broad bases of widths C, the values A, B, C, D, E, Fand G being related as follows: A/2 < or = B about E < or = A/4, C about2A about 2D, and B/2 about E/2.
 6. The element defined in claim 5wherein F about G about B/3 about E/3.
 7. The element defined in claim 6wherein B about A/3.